In 2004 the United Kingdom Atomic
Energy Authority celebrated its Golden Jubilee. On 19 July 1954 the Atomic
Energy Bill received the Royal Assent and the resulting Act gave UKAEA the
power “to produce, use and dispose of atomic energy and carry out research
into any matters therewith”.

Sir Edwin Plowden became its first
Chairman, taking over from Lord Portal at the Ministry of Supply, which
had previously been responsible for the atomic energy programme. His
fellow board members were the great nuclear pioneers,
Sir Christopher
Hinton, in charge of the Industrial Group,
Sir John Cockcroft, Research
Group, and Sir William Penney, Weapons Group.

Together they presided over the early
years of UKAEA, arguably the Golden Age of atomic energy. In 1954 UKAEA
inherited nearly 20,000 employees – but by 1961 that figure had doubled to
41,000.

The immediate reason was a very big
expansion of the defence programme and the need for much more plutonium
and highly enriched uranium; new materials were also required for the
H-bomb, which the Government announced in February 1955 was to be
developed. The Weapons Group carried out 21 major tests of atomic and
hydrogen warheads in Australia and the Pacific, between 1952 and 1958.

The
Windscale Piles production reactors
on the west Cumbrian coast were fully operational by the time UKAEA was
formed. There is no doubt that the design and construction of the Piles in
the late 1940s, at a time when Britain was struggling to recover from five
years of war, was a major achievement.
Plutonium was desperately needed
for Britain’s post war nuclear defence programme. In
1950 Aldermaston
became the main nuclear weapons site and received the first plutonium from Windscale in 1952.

But a further reason for the expansion
was the development of nuclear power for electricity generation. It is
difficult now to appreciate the excitement of those early years of nuclear
research and development. At Harwell, western Europe’s first reactor
called GLEEP (Graphite Low Energy Experimental Pile) had already been
built as had BEP0 (British Experimental Pile O) together with radiation
laboratories – the “hot labs”.

By 1954, Dounreay in Caithness had been
chosen as the site for the emerging fast breeder reactor programme and the
following year work began on the Dounreay Fast Reactor.
Risley,
established in the same year as
Harwell, provided the design support for
the reactor programme.

A great day of triumph for UKAEA came in
October 1956 when The Queen visited
Calder Hall to open the world’s first
full-scale nuclear power station. Britain was proud to lead the world in
the peaceful use of atomic energy. Further Magnox power stations were to
follow, many still providing base load electricity to the national grid.

Early in 1957 the decision was taken to
develop a new site for nuclear research.
Winfrith Heath was chosen in
Dorset and uniquely among the UK’s nuclear research facilities it was the
only one to be built on a greenfield site.

It had been a great success story so
far. However, in October 1957 the
Windscale Fire brought the euphoria of
the first age of nuclear energy to an abrupt end. Both Piles were shut
down following the accident, never to be re-started.

Though the Windscale fire was the most
serious nuclear accident in the UK it did lead to considerable safety,
technical and regulatory improvements in the industry. The
National
Radiological Protection Board was formed as direct result and, though an
independent Nuclear Installations Inspectorate had already been proposed,
the fire hastened its formation.

Despite this misfortune the civil
nuclear programme continued apace. The
Magnox family of reactors was still
under construction and the prototype advanced gas-cooled reactor at
Windscale came into full power in 1963 heralding the beginning of the
second nuclear age.UKAEA
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